The present invention relates to child restraint seats. Such seats are most widely known in use with automobiles. However, the present invention is also applicable to vehicles generally, such as busses, planes, trains and boats for example, and to theater seating and the like.
In typical use in automobiles for example, a child restraint seat is a bulky, rigid apparatus into which a child is strapped and which is fastened in a seating position in a car. Because the devices are bulky and are bothersome to remove and replace, child restraint seats are typically left in place in the car for the child's use. Only when circumstances necessitate the use of the seating position by an adult, is the child seat generally removed from the car. Child restraint seats are thus seen as somewhat of a necessary nuisance, typically reserved for use in cars and seldom, if ever, used in other types of vehicles or with other types of seating. While social acceptance and legislative requirements for the use of child restraint seats in cars is commonplace, there is also social and legislative interest in requiring their use in other vehicles, including busses, planes and trains.
While the desirability of an adult seat which is convertible to a child restraint seat is apparent, attempts to supply this need have had their own limitations and problems. The patent to Dorto (U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,229) for example, discloses a device which inherently limits its utility by creating an overhead obstruction to the child who uses the seat, requiring the child to be of sufficiently small size to sit within a recessed area in the back of an adult seat. The same problem is found in the patents to Irvin (U.S. Pat. No. 4,722,568) and to Hassel, Sr. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,216) for example. Other devices, such as the one shown in the patent to Casale (U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,443), are impractical because they require excess volumes of space.